I Am the Night (1.6) - Cliches

Let’s get this out of the way to start: I do not understand the bull motif, but for some reason I enjoy it when it surfaces. This is especially true in the finale as the bull appears in Fauna’s eye. Now we can get to the serious stuff from the series finale of I Am the Night. Coming off the strongest episode of the series last week, the show produced perhaps its most uneven episode in its last outing. Last week, I noted that the show finally felt like it was finding its groove. It knew what it wanted to be. It finally clicked that it cared about its characters. Much of this episode feels like it walks back on that. After its flashbacks of George Hodel, it opens to Fauna and Jay’s present with scenes from the Watts Riots. While the historical context has driven a considerable amount of the story throughout I Am the Night, it has never been the aspect the show, especially Sheridan’s writing, has handled best. Here the riots serve as a vehicle for the general chaos ensues as the show comes crashing to its own end.

Chris Pine continues to impress as the show winds down. He gets significantly less airtime than Jefferson Mays (George Hodel) and India Eisley in this episode, but he is endlessly captivating when he does. The episode decides to focus, almost entirely, on the first and final showdown between Fauna and George Hodel. We have really only been exposed to the horror of George Hodel through secondary sources (especially Tamar). It is both Fauna’s first experience with her grandfather and ours. It is violent, expositional, and menacing. Though Fauna’s monologue, which involves her telling George “You sure talk a lot of shit,” came out of nowhere given her character’s tendency not to talk much at all, it did feel accurate to Hodel’s character. At that moment, Fauna felt like a mouthpiece for Sheridan to talk to Hodel himself. When Jay finally shows up at George’s house, Fauna has already flipped the tables on George and has moved on (yeah, that felt oddly quick, but we only had 6 episodes to get there). Jay cannot move on. He loses control in the basement and starts destroying everything as he realizes Hodel has once again gotten away.

For as much as Sheridan has deviated from Fauna’s real-life story, there is something that feels right about the show’s ending. It is a deeply unsatisfying ending. Nobody faces consequences for any of their actions and our characters go they separate ways without many solid answers. That is exactly how it should be though. Despite a significant amount of damning evidence against George Hodel, the case of the Black Dahlia is still not closed. Hodel really did leave the country to avoid any type of prosecution. As for our characters going their separate ways, this was bound to happen given Jay Singletary is not based on an actual person. However, the way they have him depart from Fauna stands as the best scene of the entire show, and it is the final scene of I Am the Night.

As our two protagonists are having their final conversation, they are in the middle of the street as the National Guard approaches. However, the street is also engulfed in smoke and fog, making it feel dream-like. When they part, Fauna walks against the motion of the soldiers who end up following Jay through the fog of the night. It is one of the most surreal moments of the show, mixing the reality of Jay’s service with his numerous horrifying dreams. By doing this, Jay embraces the night. As he walks away from Fauna, his figure disappears and becomes part of the darkness.

I Am the Night straddles the line between embracing the noir and detective aspects of its story and honoring Fauna Hodel’s story. It is a tough balance to strike and one the show frequently struggles with. In its finale, the show decided to give Fauna a heroic send-off where she finally becomes the author of her own story. While it is a clunky process to get to that point, once we are there with Fauna, it feels as though we might just be getting to know her and how she feels about everything that has happened over the past six episodes. Unfortunately, we get that glimmer just before the light goes out and the night takes over.